[Downloaded from NASA Spacelink]
Mission Control Center
STS-65 Status Report #5
6 p.m. July 10, 1994
Routine housekeeping was the order of business today as Columbia circles the
Earth virtually trouble free continuing to provide a stable platform for the
around the clock science work ongoing in the Spacelab module.
Commander Bob Cabana and Pilot Jim Halsell are in charge of Orbiter upkeep
while Mission Specialist Rick Hieb and Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai continue
science work in the laboratory in support of the second International
Microgravity Laboratory mission.
Both Hieb and Mukai spent time in a device designed to help astronauts counter
the effects of microgravity on the human body. The lower body negative
pressure device, or LBNP, is used to create a vacuum that pulls fluids back
into the lower portions of the body as it is on Earth.
While Halsell reviewed his landing skills on the portable in-flight landing
trainer, called PILOT, Cabana conducted a tour of the Orbiter watching over the
shoulders of crew members as they performed various experiments throughout the
spacecraft. He ended the tour with views of the Earth from the operating
altitude of 163 nautical miles.
Earlier today, Hieb jiggled what was apparently a loose connection on a cable
used to transmit data to the payload controllers in Huntsville. The action was
the first step in checking the cable which did restore the link to the ground
precluding any further work by the crew.
The remaining three astronauts, working an opposite shift from their
co-workers, are scheduled to wake up about eight tonight. Carl Walz, Leroy
Chiao and Don Thomas make up the Blue Team during the STS-65 flight.
Columbia continues to perform in excellent shape, circling the Earth every 90
minutes at an altitude of 163 nautical miles.
The Johnson Space Center Newsroom will open at 7 a.m. Monday and close at 6
p.m.
NASA issues four status reports daily during the mission: Orbiter status
reports from Mission Control at about 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and science operations
reports from Spacelab Mission Operations Control in Huntsville at approximately
6 a.m. and 6 p.m.